Many IFC areas were about 7 acres in size.
There were many variations.
From Bud Halsey
"... The overall size of
our site (SF-88) is: ... IFC approximately 7 acres ...
factors that affect the overall size of the
Nike sites include the terrain and the location (sites in expensive
suburban areas were intentionally made smaller to hold down the cost of
buying the land). ..."

To help succeed in the above mission, the IFC area:

Located on a hill
for best practical radar views of targets
- and if there is no hill, use towers

I used to hike around those hills back in the late 1960's when I was a teenager.
I remember the first time I crested the peak of Oat mtn in nov 1966
from the west and saw the collection of white radomes.

I was absolutely enthralled;
and thought "What is this place ?"
I had never seen anything like it !
I was mystified, didn't have a clue as to what it all was.

Then I noticed the dimples on the large dome,
and concluded it was a country club / golf course,
and the huge golf ball was their club icon !!
As I got closer it was obvious that it wasn't a golf course, as they were
missing the green.

When when I hiked to the edge of the fence and asked for some water,
the CO came out and gave me a stern lecture about loitering around a
military reservation.

- I saluted and thanked them for the water.

- I could tell he was just doing his job.

- He sort of grinned as I walked away...

- It was a grand adventure for a kid in junior high !

Because the earth is quite spherical ("round"), the higher you are above
the surface of the sphere, the more surface and air above that surface you can see.

The radar waves used by the Nike system travel in quite straight lines, like light.
(Some other lower frequency radar waves have somewhat more complex possibilities.)

A rough formula for the maximum distance that a radar wave transmitted from a
given height will touch the ground (horizon) of a smooth earth is:

range in miles = 1.25 times the square root (height of transmitter in feet)

Height

Distance to horizon

(in feet)

(in miles)

10

3.9

30

6.8

100

12.5

300

21.6

1,000

39.5

3,000

68

10,000

125

30,000

216

This formula has some meaning in the ability of a radar system to track an aircraft
flying just above the ground. If the aircraft is flying higher, then this formula
can also be used to show how far away the aircraft can be tracked by a radar set
at the surface of a smooth earth.

In fact, you can add the range due to the
height of the radar to the range due to the height of the aircraft. For example,
if a radar is 300 feet high (range 21.6 miles)
and the aircraft is 1000 feet high (range 39.5 miles)
and the earth is smooth, add the 21.6 miles and the 39.5 miles
and get a possible radar range to that aircraft of 61.1 miles.

The above also assumes the radar is sufficiently powerful,
not being jammed too badly, and many other happy factors.

Then there are factors such as defraction and atmospheric bending that can extend
the effective range somewhat beyond the numbers given above. Welcome to the scientific
black magic of radar.

And sometimes there is no tall hill. "My" Nike site, in Chicago next to Lake Michigan,
was on a little rise maybe 15 feet above the water. Later the radars were placed on towers.

The towers get the radars above surrounding buildings and trees.
In their active life, there were sun-shades around the tower to reduce differential expansion which causes tilt.
Photos of PH-58 in 2015, by Larsen, David A.Also see SF-88 here

The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area was surrounded by a stout fence,
and guarded by armed troops. In Chicago in 1956, we had 1 30 caliber carbine
with one clip with 15 rounds. Sites with higher risk factors, such as Korea,
were much more heavily armed.

In part, this fence was to keep roaming cows, boy scouts and other casuals from
interfering with operations. Occasionally (maybe once a year) tours were pre-arranged.
Families, boy scouts, mayors and other
interested or influential people were carefully escorted (after classified
displays or information were covered or otherwise hidden.)

In general there was one gate (for the access road) through the fence,
past the guard house. This was manned by an armed guard anytime the gate was open.
Life, the international situation, and the troops were quite serious.

There was also the worry of serious intentional interference coordinated with an
air attack. Due to the exposed positions of the IFC areas, we could really only
hope that no competent attack (physical or electronic) would occur. In Korea,
small "suicide squads" would be (and are currently) infiltrated or landed which attack
a specific Nike IFC area. In general, the defenses were/are successful.

install the heavy equipment, including concrete pads and building materials,

transport fuel, water, continuing supplies

transport relief crews (there was usually no cooking in the IFC area, the Army
is absolutely paranoid about fire and accidents)

The access roads tended to be single lane, asphalt, minimal. Money was always
a problem, and as little as possible was spent on a road.

In the typically hilly areas, the single lane road although not heavily used,
(6 trips to the IFC/day might be typical) could be the meeting place for two
vehicles. To reduce the chance that one of the two vehicles might have to
do a rather dangerous back-down maybe a half mile, in the dark, in the fog,
in a hurry (alert), with tired drivers, informal "road is busy" signaling systems were
installed in many places.

Helicopters:
As the Nike system matured, and testing and supervision by the battalion and
group got tighter, helicopters were used to aid quick or surprise visits and readiness tests.
Also a badly needed part or specialist could be brought in from base support
much more quickly than via public and local roads. The safe consistent use of
helicopters almost requires a helicopter pad. Since asphalt is inexpensive,
some critical sites had two helicopter pads.

A "Ready Room" with bunks was a standard "feature" in the IFC.
The IFC was usually 1 or 2 miles from the Administrative Area and Launcher Area,
and often up a rigorous hill, so rotation of the 10-13 man shifts with the Administrative
Area was often chancy, especially as the launcher area seemed to control the
trucks.

The Ready Room did not usually include 'food service'
so to take advantage of army cooking you had to go back to the 'mess hall',
unless an arrangement was made to transport food to the IFC area.
(We made "arrangements" with the cooks for C-Rations, and could live for
weeks on that rather limited diet.) The local
pizza drivers made a killing off of us.

Our Ready Room did not include showers, so those that wished to
live for weeks at the IFC area (avoid inspections, administrative stuff)
could smell rather ripe. Occasionally a word (or two) was required.

Drinking water was supplied freely, often converted to coffee that "you could
stand a spoon in".

The ready room was divided into an area for about 20 bunks, and a lounge area with
scrounged chairs and old magazines.
We hung blankets between the two areas so that the sleepers would not be
bothered by the readers.

We got a hold of part of a bowling alley and some junk file cabinets and made
a work shop in our lounge area. We could build HeathKits, tinker with radios, do nerdy things.
The ready room was heated with a kerosene heater. The generator operator
was in-charge of that.

Our latrine was your basic two hole "out-house", and in windy Chicago winters you
could really chill your butt.

The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area was connected to commercial power when ever practical,
with converters to 400 hertz (cycles per second).
This saved fuel, wear and tear and maintenance on generators and personnel.

The Nike system was made as light as practical for easier transportability. Motors and
transformers using 400 hertz (cycles per second) electricity are considerably lighter
(need less iron) than similarly rated motors and transformers for 60 hertz.
Also 400 hertz is frequently used by the Army and Airforce in aircraft situations.

Most commercial power is 60 hertz (U.S.A) or 50 hertz (Europe). Special equipment is
required to do this conversion - usually a 60 (or 50) hertz motor direct coupled to a
400 hertz generator.

If commercial power is available, except for alerts, the site can use converters to make
400 Hz for 60 Hz. This saves gasoline and wear and tear on the gasoline (or desiel) generators.
To switch from converter to generator takes some method of synchronizing the phases and voltages
before switch over.

The converters shown here are not vintage equipment, but secured surplus from AT&T to run equipment
at SF-88 (somewhat restored)

This is the current SF-88 IFC power distribution box and cables. The frequency converters
are to the left - inside the green wall.

The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area had electrical generating equipment and fuel,
in case of alert or local power failure

In the case of an alert, both the launcher area and IFC area started their generators,
and switched over to this power. The commercial power was subject to a number of
possible situations such as normal outages, attack damage, or intentional disruption.

With the Nike Ajax, we had two gasoline engine driven 40 kW generators, and an operator
to watch them.
A 400 Hz 40 KW generator fits well into a two wheel trailer, and is a little larger than the
usual search light generator you see at store openings. An engine working at 40 horse power
easily runs a generator running at 40 KW, even allowing for the usual generation losses.

These signals were normally transmitted automatically through the signal cable to the
launcher area. In case of a cable fault, the signals could also be transmitted
by voice radio and manually entered in at the launcher area. The missile selected
could also be voice transmitted from launcher area to the IFC area and the missile
tracking operator.

Hi
I served at a fixed Nike site on Okinawa (Naha AFB) in 1960-61, and a
mobile unit at Fort Bliss Texas. At many fixed sites where there was a
security or safety issue there were "tunnels" consisting of 3' to 4'
"pipes" in which the cables were strung that connected IFC electronic
equipment to Launcher area equipment. These cables were up to a mile
long (the usually minimum distance between the missile and the missile
tracking radar necessitated by the limiting "tracking" speed of the
radar equipment). On Okinawa, Site 8 (Btry D) protected Naha Air Force
Base. The IFC area was on one side of the runway, with the Launcher area
on the other. The "tunnel" was about one mile long. I was told that
personnel inspected the tunnel using "coasters" of some kind, never
actually saw the tunnel except the entry point on our IFC site.

For our mobile units, we had to "string" these cables manually, and
would bury them for security reasons. Many people don't realize that
there was a physical connection between the two elements of a missile
site. It was not all electronic, including communication.

Carl Durling

Comment by Ed Thelen

Where I served - Chicago water front park area mid 1950s - there
was no tunnel for the IFC to Launcher area cable.
It is my impression that the signal cable to the Launcher area
was dug in using a motorized trench digger, like for your
water line to your house. There were indeed various challenges
along the way, like crossing under a major highway and
under/over several city streets. (The highway - Lake Front Drive -
did have walkthrough tunnels for park visitors (and soldiers) to
get under the big road. For some reason, I was not concerned!)

I thought we were concerned about everything - but since we had
radio contact with the launcher area and back up phone lines -

Thinking back, by the time we arrived at the site, the cable had been
laid, just like the water line and electric power were available.
(The IFC toilet was an old fashioned out-house - like back on the farm.
We did not use Porta-Potties )

In any case - there was no inspection tunnel for OUR cable -

Phone links to the administration area were useful for arranging transportation of
relief crews and other day to day requirements.

The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area had communication equipment for
communication with tactical headquarters.

At the time that I was serving, the link to Tactical Headquarters was usually
faulty, and Tactical Headquarters seems remote or non-existent. We arranged
phone links through commercial channels with adjacent batteries.

During the 1955-56 alerts we happily tracked airliners and private planes (there was
nothing else).

412 Target Designation System
There was an empty place in the corner of the BC Van behind the Acquition Operator
that rumor said was to be a "412" communication unit to enable "Tactical Headquarters"
to make displays on our scopes indicating which targets to shoot at. This had not
arrived by February 1957 when I returned to civilian life.

I was trained on the AWCS 412L (AN/GPA-73 & subsystems) system that GE built for the Air Force in the early 1960's.
The system used "high speed" and "static" logic whereby every pulse, every signal became resynchronized. Do you know anything about this?
The HL circuits contained a holding circuit (delay line & loop) where the output was clocked through ¼ uSec after the input, thus always maintaining signal integrity.
The SL circuits did the same, except the holding signal's polarity was reversed. This functioned essentially as a flip-flip (there were none in the machine).
The system also used magnetostrictive delay lines as a "solid state" drum. Outside of the fans, and switches, there were no moving parts.
The 412L was probably the first major integration of similar but disparate DP equipment. It was able to function in a networked environment without a general purpose computer. The Weapons Control Computer (AN/FSA-21) was optional, required only for mini-SAGE-type control of weapons.
Are you familiar with any of this?
Any help? Would you like to know more? I have attached a
4-frame PDF file[750 K Bytes - middle sections missing ?? ] that shows the general relationship of all equipment components.

Our unit turned in a UFO report to the Air Force in the summer of 1956.

While I was on a three day pass, our unit reported an Unidentified Flying Object ( UFO ).
It was traveling very high (above 50,000 feet) at about 550 miles per hour.
Not at all like the usual propeller driven airliner.
(Most airliners way back then were piston engine or turbo-prop traveling much slower.)
According to the folks who tracked the object and wrote the report,
the object approached from the east, got almost overhead, then turned north,
and they lost it to the north at the limits of the tracking and acq radar scan limits.

I now wonder if a U-2 was the object of that UFO report. According to
Wikipedia - the first flight of the U-2
was August 1, 1955 and
- the first U-2 overflight of the Soviet Union occurred on 4 July 1956.
Possibly that 1956 UFO report (from Nike site C-41) still exists?? That report, giving the date,
and a log of domestic U-2 flights, could nail it down :-)) - No longer a "UFO" ;-))

Of course, to most of us, most objects flying are technically "unidentified" ;-)) Unless you are at a
government aircraft control facility ( FAA ) you often see just a dot and/or a con trail in the sky
with no additional information. We are seeing a "UFO" ;-))

The military is of course VERRY interested if an aircraft, "identified" or not, is Friend or Foe.
Shooting down Friends is regarded as poor taste ( or worse ;-))
and not shooting down a Foe is hazardous to yourself and your Friends and/or allies.
Many/most military acquisition radars and aircraft are equiped with
IFF ( Identification Friend or Foe ) equiment.

Ron Loving provides the following: The Army ADA batteries were always under the command and control
of the Air Force by several means. Then came the Army command and
control from the Army Air Defense Command Post (AADCP) at the
battalion level. You might lose communications with the Air Force but
your battalion still had control of you.

During the time of an air battle, a pilot could loose or forget to
activate his IFF equipment. If so, there was only one safe way to
return to any air base in any area. That was through the SAC-EWO safe
corridors. The Strategic Air Command had predefined safe corridors back
to any Air Base if the aircraft was having IFF or other problems. These
corridors were zig-zag lines (not straight lines) that the pilot had to
follow and he had to be at certain altitudes at any given range to the
air base. These safe corridors were marked on the PPI scopes in the
fire control vans of HAWK and NIKE batteries . As long as an aircraft
was in the corridor and heading in or out and at the proper altitude for
the range he was at, he was safe without squawking the proper IFF code
or no code at all. If there was an air battle going on at the time,
most stray aircraft coming into range of a HAWK or NIKE battery would
have been taken out, just because.

In Alaska the Air Force interceptors would have engaged any low
flying aircraft. High flying bomber formations were at the pleasure of
the NIKE batteries.

The unofficial motto of ADA was to "shoot them all down and sort
them out on the ground" and then send out letters of apologies.

The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area had one or more surveillance radars
for target identification. These are also called "acquisition" radars.

In the original Nike Ajax sites, there was what is now called the
LOPAR (for LOw Power Acquisition Radar)
acquisition radar with a maximum display range of
100,000 yards or 56.8 miles. This was a "normal" magnetron pulse radar
with a switchable moving target indicator (MTI) option. Nothing very fancy,
just like you read about in the text books.

Hercules sites (with the much longer missile range) needed a
much longer range surveillance radar.
Two general types of longer range surveillance radars were supplied:

the very large HIPAR radar that had a large control building.
There was very sophisticated pulse generation, and multi-channel receivers
with unique moving target indicators (MTI) and great deal of anti-jamming capability.

or a less sophisticated "Alternate Battery Acquisition Radar" (ABAR) radar usually
either AN/FPS-69,-71 or -75.

Hercules sites also usually had a LOPAR radar.

For more information "right now", you may jump ahead to
acquisition.
(Use the "back" function to return here.)

The Nike Hercules used two Target Tracking Radars. Both radars used a cassegrain
(folded optics) technology using 2 reflectors. One radar tracked the target
in azimuth and elevation, in "X" (3 cm) band.
The other radar (Target Ranging Radar) tracked the target in range, in several radar bands.
Range jamming is easier than angle jamming, so great attention was paid to counter-acting
the range jamming including band switching, very agile frequency changing, pulse
blanking, and pulse repetition rate changing.

Depending on the local topography (and trees) zero or more of the other radars
was on a tower. There were several generation of towers, and their heights seemed to
be standardized in multiples of 10 feet.

If the tower is a bare concrete pylon surrounded by an outer steel skeleton
(square in plan view if you were looking straight down on the tower), then it's
an early tracking radar tower.

If its a concrete pylon, covered by corrugated metal directly surrounding
the circular pylon, and has an upper deck supported by cantilevered arms
extending out from the central pylon, then, it's a late model tracking radar tower.

Some old acquisition radar towers were triangular in plan view (viewed from above).

The HIPAR tower was HEXAGONAL in plan view, as was it's concrete foundation
structure. That's the easiest way to identify it. It had 6 vertical steel
posts running up vertically from the foundation (one at each of the six corners)
and the whole affair was a sort of a tubular steel space frame which permitted
relatively easy disassembly.

In my experience -- here in the New York Metro Area -- most of the HIPAR towers
appear to have been removed from the sites.

An easy way to "ID" the typical HIPAR tower, is that it does NOT have any central concrete
support column or pylon -- it is a metal space frame structure, and it is hexagonal
in plan view (looking straight down, from above) an important recognition feature.

At sites where the HIPAR tower was removed, you can often locate the hexagonal foundation
or footings. These vary somewhat from site to site, although they are all hexagonal in
plan. They are normally located close to the HIPAR Equipment Building.

This computer received tracking inputs from the target and missile radars and
provided the following:

During pre-launch, while tracking the target, a Predicted Intercept Point and a
Predicted Time of Flight was presented on plotting boards to the Battery Commander.
This was based upon an assumed straight line flight. It was up to the
Battery Commander to try to evaluate what the target would really do, and decide
when and if to FIRE (launch a missile).

After launch, all of the above were continuously updated for the Battery Commander,
and the computer also sent guidance commands to the missile via the
Missile Tracking Radar.

The missile burst command, also via the Missile Tracking Radar.

The computer technology was "analog" instead of the digital technology which was quite
primitive and unreliable at that time.

For more information "right now", you may jump ahead to
computer. (Use the "back" function to return here.)

The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area had a radar alignment system
for "bore sighting" the tracking radars

This was located about 200 yards away from the tracking antennas (sometimes in
a separate fenced area.) We posted a guard there at night, extremely lonesome,
boring, unpleasant duty (no guard house, no light) - finally abandoned guarding
the area.

The system included, a cable for remote control and power, a tall mast with
supporting lines, a control box (1'x1.5'x1.5') mounted on the mast, a waveguide
up the mast, a little horn antenna and cross arm optical targets on the top of
the mast. This was used primarily for boresighting the tracking radars.

Basically you wanted the radar beam to be aligned with the optical axis which
had to be aligned with the sine/cosine potentiometers which
(when driven by range information) yielded height, north_south, east_west information
for the computer and plotting boards.

There was also provision for testing the radar receiving sensitivity.

For more information "right now", you may jump ahead to
Alignment.
(Use the "back" function to return here.)

A Training Trailer was made available after I left the service in 1957.
Apparently in many defense areas one or two sites would have a T-1,
and troops from near by sites could also train on this equipment.
Apparently the physical size and other factors discouraged the
movement of this unit on a frequent basis among the sites. I had
heard that this trailer and its personel gave the operators the training that
I thought was lacking early in the Nike program.

For more info look at Digest .
Warning - this is in the middle of a 150K byte file.

The T-1 was a modern trailer about forty foot long. It was
definitely more modern in that employed transistor technology instead
of tubes although the amplifiers were tube driven. Due to the advent
of transistors, there was also air conditioning! Three good sized AC
units insured that temperatures remained stable and also according to
the manuals, NBC filters were available that could be mounted on the
AC units.

(Question) I heard it was operated by two men
who did not mix much with the general population.

I was a 24Q with a G2 skill identifier and was responsible for the
maintenance. Furthermore, a 16C assisted me with checks and actually
running the training missions. As to mixing, well, we did kind of
stand apart from the rest of the crews and maintenance teams.

(Question) I heard that it gave operators a good workout

The T-1 was capable of simulating up to six aircraft to the BC and RC
van's radar crews. Each individual simulated aircraft was produced by
a TCG (Target Coordinate Generator) and various parameters were
controlled including; velocity, bearing, range, altitude, aspect
ratio or reflectivity, rate of ascent/descent and video
on/off/mom-off. The mom-off setting allowed us to actually remove
the video presented to the radar crews simulating a super-stealth
capability well before it's introduction.

Additionally, the T-1 would provide a simulated missle for
engagement, a full complement of ECM, both passive chaff and active
spoof, IFF and passive interference such as ground clutter. And
this was all accomplished without the need to turn up the first
radar emission.

Actually, there were panic switches available that would remotely
release the cables from the BC and RC vans. This was not recommended
due to the possibility of damage to the connectors. The connectors
themselves had quick release arrangements so that they could be
manually disconnected very quickly by simply pulling a lanyard on the
cable heads.

(Question)It went from site to site?? or people from an
area went to it???

A)
Originally, it was apparently to be used on a temporary basis with it
traveling from site to site. I think there were somewhere around a
hundred T-1's produced. While I was in Germany, there were still 4
battalions of 4 batterys and each battery had their own T-1.

I always answered the question of what I did in the military by
telling folks I got to play video games. And a lot of times, that is
exactly what it felt like!

I have just finished reading your account of
Nike firings at Crete.
I was interested in your comments about the T-1 trainer van.

We used the T-1 both at McGregor and at Crete. We also used it extensively for training on-site. The T-1 was capable of simulating any type of maneuver/jamming imaginable.
We hated to see them hook it up because it gave us a hell of a workout.
Very effective training.

By the way, I fired from both McGregor and Crete during the four years that I was active. Hope this helps. Keep up the good work!!